Nora is learning new words every day, and Opa taught her the words "hapje", "ja" and "oor". Of course she knows how to say "opa". Today we talked on Skype with Oma so when we asked Nora later: "waar is Oma?", she looked at the laptop.

Jaap had a busy schedule and visited the National Gallery, the Zoo and a music store this weekend.

We went for a walk today and spent some time at the playground near our home.

Nora loves the swing.

Much more fun than in the stroller!

It's unbelievable how much has happened this first year. So many "firsts", so many new things to learn for both us and Nora, and so many loving visitors... On Monday Nora celebrated her first birthday.

We had a house full of family and it was a great day.

When Nora woke up the house was full with pink balloons and garlands. When she entered the room in mami's arms she pointed out each and single balloon. From an alphabet book she had learned the word balloon already, so she happily said "ba, ba" to every one of them.

We had blueberry scones for breakfast and when I came back from picking up the cake Jonathan and the kids had just arrived. We made a birthday hat for Nora and prepared the lunch. Nadia had baked a special pitka, a Bulgarian bread for parties, which turned out great.

Nora opened her presents. She was particularly happy with a plush dog in a plush doghouse.

After lunch we cut the cake. Nora was getting tired so she got scared by the cake and the singing, but after a quick cuddle things were fine. Julian helped her blow the candle. In the afternoon she played with her cousins and she had a great day, and so did we.

Birthday girl with her birthday hat.

One year old!

Nadia's birthday pitka for Nora.

The cake was a little overwhelming...

...but a quick cuddle by mami made everything okay.

Today Milan and Nadia went back home to Perushtitsa. They've been with us for six months and we had a wonderful time together.

They saw Nora grow up from barely 6 months old to her first birthday and provided her with love as only grandparents can. When they arrived she had just had her first bites of solid food and now she routinely eats bread, vegetables, meat and other normal food. They taught her many games and words. For Sasha and me it was great to spend time with them, including the holidays, and we will miss them.

Milan and Nadia are traveling through Frankfurt; they'll arrive in Sofia tomorrow morning.

On her birthday Nora learned to say "bye bye" from Uncle Jonathan. She has known how to say "чао чао" and "dag dag" for quite some time but this was her first English word and she liked it a lot. So for the past two days she's been saying "bye bye" at regular intervals, much to my dismay! I'm joking of course -- English will be her primary language -- but it's amazing to see how quickly she picks up certain words now.

This morning I thought it was over. I took Nora under my arm to get a cup of coffee and in the elevator a lady talked a little bit to Nora. She didn't reply much, but sure enough, when the lady left and said "bye bye", Nora smiled and started repeating it again.

At the upside, she's doing pretty well with the two languages she's been hearing at home. One of her birthday gifts was a plush dog in a doggie house. She was playing with it tonight and when I asked "waar is het hondje?" and Sasha "къде е кучето?" Nora in both cases looked at the dog.

Another word she has learned is "hoppa", which is something we say when we put her down somewhere. And the biggest hit of all is "ba, ba" for ballon -- something she learned from an alphabet book Nadia has been reading to her.

Pictures of her birthday are coming soon.

Only four more days and Nora will be one year old. Irena will arrive tomorrow evening and the rest of the Zane family on Sunday.

Nora has a cold so none of us has slept very well the last two nights. She had a 102.5 degree fever Tuesday night but her temperature has come down and she should be fine by her birthday. She's a real trooper -- she gets annoyed because she can't breathe freely through her nose but she is still smiling a lot and even playing games with us.

This morning I proposed that we read a book together and I pulled out the "appel" book. But she pointed to the big Nijntje book with the animals and said "Nijn!" so we read that one instead.

This is so much fun! Over the last few weeks I've been playing with Google Sketchup and I've tried to faithfully draw our apartment.

A special rendering plugin converts the sketch into a semi-realistic image. Using PaintShop Pro I added the background (from this photo), and here is the result.

This is the Sketchup model.

This is how it looks in real life.

And here is the final result.

When even the cashier in Whole Foods turned out to be from Bulgaria, I knew that this was a very Bulgarian day.

We had visitors in the morning and in the afternoon we went to the Bulgarian store in Manassas. That's about 40 minutes from here, but it was well worth the drive. We bought lukanka and пушен врат, two delicious sausages, and many other things including typical Bulgarian herbs. It's a nice little store. The owner said that he expects Bulgarian beer to arrive by the end of the month.

On the way back home we stopped at the grocery store and the cashier of the line next to me explained to her customer that she is from Bulgaria. I said hello to her.

In the evening we welcomed Milan and Nadia back home. It was very nice to see them again. They had spent several days in Secaucus with lots of trips to New York City, including a game of the New York Knicks.

Our visitors brought a nice present for Nora -- Bulgarian children's magazines.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands today announced her abdication. In a broadcast that was recorded earlier today, she stated that she will step down as Queen on April 30th this year and her son Willem-Alexander will become King of the Netherlands.

In her short but powerful speech the monarch referred to the fact that she will be 75 soon and that this year the Netherlands will be a monarchy for 200 years. She said: "I am not resigning because my duties are becoming too burdensome but I believe that the responsibility for our country should now be in the hands of a new generation."

The Queen made a specific mention of the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom and said that "she has always felt warmly welcome there".

I am not resigning because my duties are becoming too burdensome but I believe that the responsibility for our country should now be in the hands of a new generation. It is with the greatest confidence that on April 30 I will transfer my powers to my son, the Prince of Orange.

The Queen concluded her speech:

"I feel strengthened by the thought that making place for my successor won't be mean I have to say goodbye to you. I look forward to often still meeting many of you. I am deeply grateful for the trust you have placed in me over the many beautiful years where I've been allowed to be your queen."

King's Day on April 27

The annual celebration that until now was known as Queen's Day will be renamed to King's Day (Koningsdag) and it will be celebrated on April 27th, the birthday of Prince Willem-Alexander.

We had some snow Thursday morning and Friday afternoon, a white world.

I worked on Saturday afternoon and we visited the Pentagon City mall. We met two people from my Bulgarian class there and I introduced Nadia and Milan to them.